Democrats did very well in the 2025 Virginia state elections, and they are doing their best to change the odds for their party in national government in future elections. The Commonwealth has been politically and socially conservative but is moving toward the government-dependent left as the Northern Virginia suburbs continue to expand.
Virginia and New Jersey elect Governors the year after the Presidential elections, and often the state winners are from the parties that lost the Presidency. That happened in both states this year. Abigail Spanberger ran as a “don’t ask me what I’ll do” candidate. That is the winning Democratic tactic in any area remotely moderate.
The Democrats also gained a large legislative majority. Their announced agenda is anything but moderate. [Having] taken power in Virginia, [they] are now proposing more than fifty tax increases in the state legislature — including taxes on dog walking, gym memberships, dry cleaning, and parcel delivery.
Spanberger is also anti-ICE, pro-open borders, open to both sexes in women’s locker rooms and sports. Her attempt to understand perpetrators rather than victims is causing problems, as multiple innocents are dying due to a lack of criminal enforcement, especially in Northern Virginia.
But the real hardball is being played when it comes to changing the rules for national elections. Virginia had a constitutional provision governing congressional districting. It called for a neutral method to be used that would do a fair job. They produced a 6-5 Democratic delegation, which corresponds to the Presidential vote, which Harris won 52-46.
But that is not good enough for this regime. Claiming the need to be “fair,” they managed to get the Supreme Court of Virginia (SCOVA) to let them “bend” a few clearly written rules in the state constitution and hold a referendum on April 21 to change the constitution so they can redistrict. The referendum was also advertised as an emergency, temporary measure. Right! The referendum passed by three percent, 51.5 to 48.5.
SCOVA could still enforce the actual laws and overrule this, but I’m not holding my breath. It will be harder because the vote is a fait accompli.
Now look at a proposed map.
Understand what this means. Fewer than 3% of voters used a questionable referendum to shift four seats from one party to the other. Those four seats represented relatively rural areas of the state and views that coincided with the people they elected. This dubious process is going to have largely urban candidates who are part of the Democratic majority in Congress representing people who don’t agree with that.
In addition to going after Congress, they are going after the Presidency. The legislature passed, and the Governor signed a bill adding Virginia to the National Popular Vote (NPV) Compact. This is a mechanism to invalidate the Electoral College without amending the Constitution. Given that most of the support for it is from Democrats, you can assume they believe it will help them.
The winner lost the popular vote in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. Democrats won the popular vote in 2000 and 2016. In 2024, they lost both. They usually win the popular vote. Large states like California, New York, and Illinois can return large pluralities that don’t fully benefit the candidate when only the electoral votes matter.
There are 435 members of the House of Representatives, one hundred Senators, and three votes for the District of Columbia. This means there are 538 members of the Electoral College, and 270 are needed for a win. Although we all think we have the right to vote for electors, that is not true. That has developed into a custom. All the states have just done it that way.
The Constitution says:
“Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.”
All states currently allow voters to choose a slate of electors by voting for a candidate. Whichever candidate wins, their slate is the group of electors for that state. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.
Nothing will change nationally until enough states sign on so they have at least 270 votes and can be sure to win the election. Even then, nothing happens if a candidate wins both votes.
If the two kinds of votes differ, a state’s voters will have their choice represented if they are not part of the compact or if they voted along with the popular vote.
The difference occurs once the compact is in place, a state is part of it, and the state’s choice lost the popular vote and would win the electoral vote without the compact. That state would not send the electors whom its citizens voted for. The slate of the national popular vote winner would be seated instead. Why did the people of that state bother to vote?
It’s not who votes that counts, it’s who counts the votes!
This mechanism gives every less-than-perfectly honest vote counter an incentive to pad the vote count. A few hundred thousand added Democratic votes in city after city don’t matter all that much in the current system. They might flip one state’s result. Adding these false numbers to a national tally to decide the election is dramatically different.
Also, whoever counts last has a controlling position. They are in the best position to fudge the numbers. They know how much bending is needed. The three West Coast states will make this whole thing so untrustworthy that I can see an almost immediate pressure on states to bail out.
The “National Popular Vote Compact” mechanism is virtually guaranteed to destroy whatever faith remains in elections. “If you can’t win, change the rules,” is not the appropriate attitude in a free and open society. It does make sense in a “Win today – Tomorrow be damned!” world.